- Business/commercial identity theft-(using another business name to obtain credit)
-criminal identity theft - which is when one person uses another persons name if arrested by police
- Financial Identity theft- when a person uses someone else's identity to obtain goods and services.
-identity cloning- When a person uses another persons information to assume his/her identity in life on a daily basis.
- medical identity theft- Stealing someones identity to obtain medical care or drugs.
Identity theft is closely monitored today specially to prevent terrorism.
People can steal a persons identity in a number of different ways... One way and probably the most popular way is to steal someones mail, that has the persons personal information on it. Another way is by stealing an individuals credit card... Today another popular choice is by advertising false jobs (specially through craigslist). With the economy the way it is now, and with all the people that are job-less. it makes it easy for this to happen. People post fake jobs and set up interviews... During the interview the interviewer will ask the applicant for there SS # and other personal information. The applicant will feel obligated to give this information to increase there likelihood of getting hired for this fake job.. It's important for people now a days, to keep there personal information to themselves, and NEVER give out your banking information....
Citibank has developed a identity theft protection plan that protect people against these fraudulent purchases... Something other banks are also beginning to do as they realize this problem is only increasing...
This topic is so close to me because my freshman year of college I had lost my Debit card on campus at my school... I did not notice until the next time I went to use my card, which sadly was 3 days later!!! Someone had found my card and used it to buy a video game system and other various electronics.... I had lost 75% of my bank account which was luckily only 600$, but for a college student, that is a lot!!! I contacted my bank, to cancel my credit cards and to see what was my next step. Unfortunately they could only refund me 50% of what was lost, but I guess that was better than nothing... It did teach me a valuable lesson of being more responsible, something Im almost glad that happened.
It was pretty impossible to catch the person who was using my card, I've heard stories of people who steal credit cards, then order merchandise over the internet and have it delivered directly to their homes!!! Therefore the police and other investigators go to the peoples homes and recover the merchandise and arrest the person.. That to me is being a pretty dumb criminal...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR1OUFmGq0E
It is pretty interesting to know that there are 5 different types of identity theft! And it's too bad that you were a victim from this crime..sorry to hear. That's one of the biggest problems that we all face in this country AND even around the globe. And yes...being extra careful is the first step to solve this problem :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear about your experience as well. I think it's kinda ironic how we are constantly warned about the evils of identity theft, and how it's so prevalent in modern society today, yet it never really hits us until we are personally victimized by it.
ReplyDeleteThat blows that the bank only gave you back 50 percent but it is better than nothing as you stated. It just shows that we all need to be more careful in these types of situations.
ReplyDeleteI know one of my friends had their card taken and the bank gave them back zero. Identity theft sucks and it's only gonna get worse I think.
ReplyDeleteI've had my credit card stolen too, lots of money was used but the bank gave it all back to me. Recently I was in the car with my girl friend driving from Buffalo to Long Island, after she used her card at a gas station in Albany and then again in NY, her bank called her and asked her if those were legit purchases... about a half hour after the second gas purchase. They said they called because they thought she lived in Buffalo and the card was traveling around the state being used.
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